1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION.
This invention relates to an apparatus for crushing individual metal cans of a plurality of metal cans.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART.
Recent legislation regulating the collection and disposition of disposable containers such as plastic bottles and metal cans in the soft drink industry has resulted in increased interest in machines that can be employed to reduce the size of the used containers to simplify handling and storage. Three machines respectively disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,857,334; 4,009,838; and 4,285,426 represent specific devices intended to satisfy specific needs in this regard. The latter two machines are primarily intended to tear or shred plastic bottles and/or metal cans into smaller pieces. These and other, similar machines are outside of the scope of the present invention and are directed to a completely different process.
On the other hand, the device of U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,334 discloses an apparatus for crushing containers individually by the use of a ram and platen. Although such individual crushing may be considered desireable because of the dual purpose of dispensing a token, repeated crushing of individual or groups of soft drink containers in this manner can result in serious problems in the ram mechanism because of the quantity of soft drink fluid which is left in each individual container. Consequently, although a ram might be used for crushing numerous containers or cans one at a time, the accompanying problems associates with the soft drink fluid left in each container would seriously complicate cleaning and maintenance and the overall life of such a device.
For some purposes, it is desireable to be able to crush individual cans of a large quantity of cans so that the resulting crushed containers can be individually conveyed, stacked, collected and handled. In other words, although an apparatus need not treat each container individually for the dispensing of a token as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,334, the final crushed containers should be sufficiently individual for transmittal by a conveyer belt or other means for eventual collection and handling. The devices shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,155,028; 3,489,354; and 3,504,621 appear to be capable of crushing larger quantities of containers. Whether the containers are actually crushed individually or not is unclear. What is clear, however, is that each of these devices either includes multiple sets of rollers or moving components which highly complicates the operation of the devices and makes them questionable for operation in what has been found to be a hostile environment of the soft drink fluids which remain in such used cans and containers. The soft drink fluid is extremely cohesive and corrosive and extended operation of such a device requires significant periodical maintenance to attempt to remove this material from the apparatus.
Consequently, there remains a need for a simple apparatus for crushing metal cans which will tend to cause individual cans to be separately crushed for collection, transportation and disposition. Such an apparatus might also be used in other industries such as the food processing industry where large quantities of cans of food ingredients are used and must be disposed of thereafter. As a result, there may be similar concerns regarding the material left in such cans and similar needs for collection and transportation as is found in the soft drink industry. Accordingly, a machine which can properly crush cans for the soft drink industry might have similar application in other industries and would therefor not be limited to the soft drink industry.